Packers Will Address “Many Contracts” in Coming Months
By Paul Bretl
Pretty much from the time the Green Bay Packers 2020 season ended through the first few weeks of free agency, their salary cap situation dominated the headlines—and understandably so as they found themselves in a cap crunch.
With the league salary cap plummeting to $182.5 million, the Packers made a number of moves to get under that figure while still allowing themselves some room to bring back players like Aaron Jones, Kevin King, Marcedes Lewis, Robert Tonyan, and Chandon Sullivan, among others.
On the flip side, the cap-saving maneuvers that they made included cutting Christian Kirksey, and Rick Wagner, pay cuts for Preston Smith and Devin Funchess, along with several contract restructures that pushed over $30 million in cap charges from 2021 to 2022.
Now that the dust has settled, Over the Cap projects that the Green Bay Packers have about $2.6 million in available cap space at the moment.
While the talk of the team’s salary cap situation has taken a back seat to the draft, there are still moves that have to be made, and Brian Gutekunst told us that on Monday when asked about Aaron Rodgers’ contract situation:
"“We will have to address many contracts over the next 4-5 months to get under the cap for the season,” said Gutekunst via Packers Wire. “And that’s certainly one (Rodgers’ deal) we will probably address as well.”"
While Green Bay is currently under the salary cap, they still need additional room. And, no, it’s likely not going to be for any new free-agent additions. The Packers still need space to sign this year’s draft class, cap space to field a practice squad, and of course, cap space for any in-season additions that might come along–just as they did in 2020 by signing Tavon Austin and Damon Harrison.
Fortunately for the Green Bay Packers, there are several moves that they can still make. The most obvious move — and Gutey alluded to it — is reworking Rodgers’ deal. Rodgers has a $14.7 million base salary this season that can be converted to a signing bonus, and the cap hit can then be spread out over the remaining years of his deal, rather than absorbing that entire hit in 2021.
And while I wouldn’t call it likely, I’m still not willing to rule out an extension either. Rodgers is coming off an MVP season, after all.
Another obvious move and one that I expect to happen sooner than later is an extension for Davante Adams, who is in the final year of his deal. With a cap hit in 2021 of $16.78 million, Green Bay can add on some years and spread the cap hit out over the life of the contract.
Za’Darius Smith and Adrian Amos are two other extension candidates. Smith comes with a monstrous cap hit in 2022 of $28.13 million—something will have to be done about that, and as one of the most productive edge rushers in football the last two seasons, he’s certainly earned some additional years added on.
A similar argument could be made for Amos, who over the second half of last season was one of, if not the best, safety in football during that stretch. And at 28 years old, he still has a lot of good football ahead of him.
One other move I’ll throw out there is cutting Dean Lowry after June 1st. If the Green Bay Packers do that they’ll save $4.8 million in cap space. However, given the current construction of the IDL room, that’s not an option at this time. It’s a thin room, and they just don’t have that luxury to move on from Lowry–even with that amount of savings.
So just because the Green Bay Packers found their way under the salary cap doesn’t mean that they are done. In fact, as Gutey mentioned and as has been discussed, there is still quite a bit of financial moves that have to take place.
Yet, one thing to keep in mind is that any cap space created in 2021 has to go somewhere; it doesn’t just disappear. And for Green Bay, who will face a similar cap situation in 2022, they have to be very mindful of the moves they make.
Hopefully, once we get to 2023 and the new TV deals kick in, the Packers will have a lot more flexibility. However, for now, they’ll make the necessary moves to say afloat.